Houston is seeing an influx of visitors of the human variety, but as of late a few more million or so have also hitched rides into the Bayou City with them.

Every few months Houston is reminded of its bedbug problem, with the tiny blood suckers attacking homes and apartments alike, invading any way they can.

Reading that sentence probably made you itch just a little bit. You aren't alone.

On Tuesday KPRC-TV profiled an apartment complex where residents are infested with the creatures. Some of the footage of the bugs was downright petrifying.

Some people suggested comically that once you get infested with bedbugs you might as well burn down the place as the bugs are hard to extricate from anywhere without thousands of dollars in treatments. Even then the problem could still linger.

It should be noted that buying used furniture on Craigslist or other outlets could be dicey in a city with a bedbug presence.

Mark Nueling, branch manager of the Austin-based Pest Management Inc., was at a Houston-area home doing an inspection on Wednesday. He advises against throwing away furniture infested with bedbugs only as a last resort or a sanitation issue.

"Don't throw away everything you own unless you have exhausted every possible treatment," he says.

Nueling says that according to his knowledge there are three species of bedbugs in the United States. He's worked all over Texas and says that Houston seems to have to worst when it comes to bedbugs.

Houston is an international city with an influx of travelers and new residents who could also be bringing bedbugs with them on their clothes and in their moving vans.

"There is such a diverse population here these days that its hard to keep track of where all the bugs could be coming from," Nueling says.

His company uses two main treatments to combat bedbugs: heat and chemicals.

The heat treatment calls for targeted rooms to be heated up to 135 degrees for up to five hours at a time, and even then its only guaranteed to work 90 days to six months. The chemical treatments target every crevice of infested furniture and rooms and are only guaranteed for 30 days at most.

He says that store-bought treatments may only work for a few days and later only work to harden the surviving bugs to further chemicals.

A database of hotels alleged to have bed bugs can be found at The Bedbug Registry. Users can log in and relate their tales of bug-bitten woe there. There are more than a few Houston hotels mentioned, with some reviews going back four years. Hotel staffs have also logged in to say how they have addressed the issues. This would probably be a handy link to send to friends, co-workers, or in-laws traveling to Houston.